The invention relates to recognition training and, more particularly, to a system and process for training persons to recognize and identify specific objects or entities.
The classical technique for recognition training involves the use of flash cards or other means for showing aspects (ie. views) of an entity which is to be identified by a trainee with a human trainer managing the presentation of the entity views. An extension of this technique is the use of multiple views to represent a single entity so as to achieve a more complete recognition of the entity by approaching it from several angles or aspects.
However such a technique has limited effectiveness in teaching the recognition of an entity within a set of entities which share some common or very similar characteristics. One disadvantage of this technique is that the trainee has no physical control over which views of an entity are presented and the rate at which they are shown, relying totally on the skills and, to some extent, patience of the trainer. Secondly when the trainee attempts to identify the entity from the view presented, he typically is advised of whether the guessed name was correct or not. For incorrect guesses, the trainee is not offered an opportunity to examine a view of the guessed entity, if such exists, and compare it to the entity that is to be identified. This approach is not generally employed with flash cards because finding the guessed entity is either too slow or impractical. This is rather unfortunate since such an approach would be a very powerful teaching tool.
One development in the field of recognition training is disclosed in an article appearing in the October 1985, Vol 2:10 issue of the Journal of Medical Technology by Mitchell, McNeely and Chang entitled "A Computer-controlled Video Disc System for Teaching White Cell Morphology and Differential Counting to Medical Technology Students". The system described displays text on a computer video terminal and full color images on a television screen. The functional operations offered include displaying cells and descriptive text, and testing the student's knowledge. However, this system does not present these cell characteristics in a dual fashion, thereby permitting the students to examine more closely incorrect identifications by comparison of the characteristics.